Man Tried To Pay Bail To Judge With Counterfeit Bills

Note to self: Make sure if you have to pay for something to a government official or agency, you grab the right stack of bills.

33-year-old Patrick Alexander was arrested on Saturday for trespassing at a property in Chesterfield, South Carolina, according to police. After a night in jail, Alexander was brought before Judge John Davis, who had set the bail at $250 on the misdemeanor charge.

Given back his belongings so that he could retrieve bail money, Alexander pulled out a wad of cash and handed Judge Davis three $100 bills.

When he gave the judge the cash, he told him to "Keep the change."

Judge Davis told Alexander that one, he couldn't keep the extra money, and two, the bills were off as far as their color went, so he had a feeling they were most likely fake.

Luckily for the court, and unluckily for Alexander, one of the detention officers had a counterfeit detection pen on them, which they used and found that the bills were fakes.

Instead of going out on his bail, Alexander was hit with a new set of charges: felony forgery and a misdemeanor contempt of court charge. Instead of his bond being $250, it was raised to $6,000.

When Alexander's fake money was taken into evidence, it was realized that he passed FOUR fake $100 bills, so instead of a $50 tip of the "change" he was trying to pass the judge $150.

Read more at The Smoking Gun